Kirk Gibson thinks Melky Cabrera should’ve been suspended for a year

Arizona Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson thinks MLB should be taking a tougher stance on performance enhancing drugs. As it stands, a player is suspended 50 games for their first failed drug test, the penalty Melky Cabrera received yesterday. A 100 game suspension is the penalty for a second failed test. And a lifetime ban after a third failed test.

Gibson believes that the penalties should be harsher. Under Gibson’s plan, Cabrera would be facing a season-long suspension. And if he failed a second test, Cabrera would be banned for life.

“I don’t have an exact number,” Gibson said. “I think it should be a minimum of a year (for a first positive) and after that it should just be banned.”

In nine games against Gibson’s squad, Cabrera hit.462 with three doubles, two homers, eight runs scored and six RBIs and the Giants won 4 out of 9. And Gibson has not forgotten the impact the now tainted Cabrera had in those games.

“He’s had a huge impact against us,” Gibson said. “And then you go back to 2008 with the Manny thing. Huge impact. You compare like in the NCAA with Penn State. All those people are gone and Penn State is paying for it. Here it’s just tied to the individual. I think we need much stronger ramifications for that type of activity. It just absolutely cannot be tolerated.”

If MLB really wants to rid the game of PEDs, maybe they should do something like this. Because obviously what’s currently in place is not deterring players from cheating.

Comments

I agree with Gibson on harsher penalties and hope the baseball writers keep the previous heavy users out of the Hall of Fame. The standard “I never knowingly used steriods” or “I never failed a test (because they were taking masking agents)” are sick excuses for sick individuals.

The real truth is easily proven as former ace SI writer Rick Reilly did a few years back. Every team issues a uniform annually. From 38-43 Barry Bonds jersey grew from a medium to an XL, his hat size went up a couple sizes as did his shoe size. What is more clear cut than this ? And what is more scary when your head and feat grow in your late 30’s ?

Gibson is correct in saying that his team was effected by a player using drugs, and something should be done, but his analogy to PSU is terrible. PSU was a case of leaders of the institution being crimnally charge with crimes. Yet the team received the penalties.
I would say Gibson must want Selig to forfit all games Melky played in. Then the team would suffer. That will never happen, and the individual being jpunished is enough. Melky has to live with his teamate when they do not make the playoffs because of his cheating. Sports institutions should not be setting penalties agaist innocent teams and players, but just the individuals. Take a lesson NCAA.

if the MLB were to hold teams accountable for their players actions, this crap would of ended with Bonds. If Matt Cain got his perfect game taken away, hell even a few of his wins from this season, you really think that Melky still juices? and does not get the crap kicked out of him? Pro’s turn the other way if they see a teammate not following the rules, it is insane that the franchise gets to benefit from the 113 games he played as a roid monkey, and if they still make the playoffs it proves my point even more. Answer me this, when Marion Jones was convicted of using PED’s, she lost all her medals, but did her teammates in the relay keep theirs, even though they were clean as whistles……..NO!! they were stripped of their medals for no wrongdoing on their part, but their TEAMMATE cheated, plain and simple, MLB execs. need to pull their heads out of their a$$e$ and realize that teams need to be responsible for the mistakes made by their players……lets see how many juicers we have after that. And if “Milky” ends up with the national league batting title the MLB will look like the idiots they are